I have been losing main F/R speakers one by one in my 2004 OB. It has the tweeter package. So, removing all the speakers shows the tweeters are 4-ohm,
front mains are 4-ohm and the rear mains are 8-ohm. Why are the rears 8-ohms? As it turns out 8-ohm speakers are hard to find. Is there a big risk in using 4-ohm speakers in the rear? Can I add a resistor to increase a 4-ohm speaker to 8-ohms? Why does Subaru use this set up when most others use 4-ohm speakers? Anyone found a source for 8-ohm speakers?

You should have no issues running 4 ohm speakers off of the factory head unit. You can run the risk of extra heat with the lower impedance and therefore the head unit could burn out. Have not seen it in my years though, it is a possibility. As far as the resistor goes it is not resistance on speakers it is impedance. Now as far as why OEM manufactures do this there is a few reasons, usually the head units are rated for more power and by pairing them with 8ohm speakers the power used is much less and there fore less heat and wear, which equals less chance for failure and increased longevity. Now with all that said without knowing the exact specs of your head unit new 4 ohm speakers will work but they may sound worse than your OEM's simply because your head unit may not have enough power for the new speakers. If you want to keep the 8 ohm I suggest trying to find OEM Suby speakers at a local junkyard or buying stock ones from your dealer, this could be expensive though. Your best bet for overall sound and reliability would be to replace all the speakers with new 4 ohm, components up front and 2 ways in the rear, then also replace your head unit with a new high powered aftermarket one. This will give you a source that can handle the power requirements of the new speakers just fine. Plus you can probably buy all the speakers and head unit for what the factory speakers would cost. If money is tight buy the speakers first and install them to see how they sound. If it sounds good to you then your all set, if not then I would replace the head unit at that time.

That's pretty much what I thought re: buying rear replacements. I mentioned the resistor only because the tweeters have something soldered across the (+) terminal. I figured this was to increase impedance for the total front speaker load. Or is it used as a filter instead of a crossover for the tweeters? Or neither?

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the Subaru Outback - Subaru Outback Forums forums, you must first register.
Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

OR

Log-in

User Name

Password

Remember Me?

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.